Optimizing the packet forwarding throughput of multi-hop wireless chain networks

In the literature, it has been shown that due to signal interferences between neighboring stations, the maximum packet forwarding throughput of a N-hop wireless chain network decreases as N increases and is only 1/N of the wireless bandwidth. This 1/N trend continues until the throughput finally stabilizes at only 1/5 or even less when N becomes large. To solve this problem, this paper proposes an approach that optimizes the forwarding throughput of a wireless chain network. In this approach, which we call the 'two-frequency scheme', the wireless interface cards of some nodes in the wireless chain network will swap their operating frequency channels between two different channels to avoid interferences. Using this approach, even when N is large, the forwarding throughput can be cost-effectively improved to 1/2, which is the optimal forwarding throughput that can be achieved by a half-duplex wireless interface. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.